The fate of ammonium-nitrogen in leachate contaminated groundwater system

• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ammonia; Attenuation; Biological activity; Groundwater; Hydrogeochemistry; Landfill; Landfills; Nitrification; Nitrogen; Nitrogen dioxide; Organic chemistry; Oxidation; Wells
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4931192

Hydrogeochemical conditions influences strongly on ammonium attenuation and ultimately its long-term fate in the subsurface. The purpose of this work was to identify the conditions influencing the persistence of ammonium-nitrogen in the contaminated groundwater system of Taman Beringin ex-landfill site in Malaysia. This study applies hydrogeochemical data extractions techniques of redox sensitive groundwater species from previously installed monitoring wells between February to August 2014. Electrochemical measurements of Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) were collected successively with several other physicochemical parameters including pH, Temperature, and DO in the landfill site. The result show that the mean concentration of NH4-N, NO2-N, and NO3-N are: (47.98±81.83 mg/L), (0.17±0.22 mg/L) and (6.11± 8.74 mg/L) respectively. The mean range of redox potentials (−10.25±128.28 mV) delineated areas of strongly reducing conditions. Based on the evaluation of the data, NH4-N, NO2-N and NO3-N accounts for 89.98%, 0.28% and 9.7% respectively of the groundwater concentration of total nitrogen, while a miniature proportion of oxidisable nitrogen concentrations (10.02%) are attributed t o biological process of nitrification. Relationship exist between data set NH4-N and ORP (r = −0.65009). It was concluded that although biological attenuation processes are effectively decreasing the ammonia concentrations in some of the wells, the processes are inhibited by chemical conditions that were attributed to Fe reducing conditions as observed in some of the wells. NH4-N will remain persistent and at elevated levels as much as the conditions persist and contributes in determining the fate of NH4-N in the Taman Beringin ground water system.